In today's environment it is advantageous when using a public washroom to minimize the amount of contact between the user and the facilities. Many washrooms are not kept in order as they should be in terms of level of sanitation and therefore it is desirable to be able to operate a toilet seat without touching said seat. Within the prior art there are a number of mechanisms which disclose devices which lift a toilet seat. However many problems exit within such devices which are yet to be overcome.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,426,743, corresponding to Canadian Pat. No. 1,200,654, assigned to Sani-Seat, Incorporated, discloses a operatorcontrolled, toilet-seat lifting mechanism which has a spring embodied therein creating a constant bias force which when engaged by an operating mechanism as best illustrated in FIG. 3 lifts the toilet seat. However it is necessary for the user of said device to keep constant pressure on the operating means in order to provide the constant upward biasing force to maintain the seat in an upright position. Thus in the preferred embodiment the operator must keep their foot engaging the pedal of FIG. 3. As best illustrated in FIG. 8, a crank rotating in a counter-clockwise direction 82 is provided in the mechanism wherein a bowden cable is conveniently connected at 80. Further, such a device provides no mechanical advantage in the operating means which in the preferred embodiment is a foot-actuated lever to reduce the amount of effort required to raise the toilet seat. The only mechanical advantage really obtained is the crank itself, or the radius at which the cable is set in relation to the center of the pivot for the shaft 26. The foot lever will provide a straight pull which means that the crank 72 will have to move effectively 70.degree. in order to accomplish the task set out by the inventor in the patent disclosure.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,470,161, assigned to Sani-Seat Incorporated, discloses another toilet seat raising mechanism having operator-controlled means for selectively raising and lowering the seat incorporating a control member engaged with the operator-actuated member as a resilient absorbing means. This is best illustrated in relation to FIG. 2. At columns 4, line 7, "The force-absorbing spring 36 prevents damage to the system in the event that the seat 16 is forcibly lowered while the foot pedal remains depressed by an operator's foot.". Thus, again, the operator must maintain their foot in engagement with the pedal while the seat remains raised.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,584,724, discloses a toilet seat lifting and lowering device which may be foot or hand operated and which at column 1, line 34, states that the self supporting base for the foot pedal is positioned in a predetermined spot so that when the toilet seat reaches the upright position, it will remain upright when the user's foot is removed. At column 3, line 9, "The positioning of the base 3 in relation to the toilet 1 is to be adjusted so that when the user's hand is removed, the toilet seat 2 remains upright.". Thus the installation becomes critical in order for the device of U.S. Pat. No. 4,584,724 to work correctly and it is potentially possible that the installer may misinstall or misalign the base thus resulting in a mechanism which only lifts the seat but does not maintain it in its upright position even when the hand or foot is removed. There is no locking engagement.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,649,576 is another example of a footoperated toilet seat device as is U.S. Pat. No. 4,103,371.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,592,097 discloses a seat lifter.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,150,446 discloses an alternative cable system using a lever which is very bulky, contained within a housing and would be a safety and a tripping hazard. Further the toilet tank may interfere with the crank 44 at the top end proximate the pin and toilet seat.
Nowhere within the prior art is there found a toilet seat lifting mechanism wherein the operating mechanism of the toilet seat when operated raises the seat to beyond a predetermined position and locks the seat in that position until the operator disengages or unlocks the locking position allowing the seat to lower wherein as the seat is lowered a dampening device is provided to prevent slamming of the toilet seat.
Further nowhere within the prior art is there found a toilet seat lifting device which provides mechanical advantage beyond that found in a normal crank so as to allow senior citizens and young children who have considerably less muscular strength than an adult to use the device.
It is therefore an objection of this invention to provide a toilet seat lifting mechanism which is easy to use and does not require a great deal of input force to operate.
It is a further object of this invention to provide a toilet seat lifting mechanism which locks in position when actuated by the operator.
It is a further object of this invention to provide a toilet seat lifting mechanism which provides a mechanical advantage in use.
It is a further object of this invention to provide a toilet seat mechanism which amplifies the input displacement sufficiently to raise a toilet seat to a correct amount.
Further and other objects of the invention will become apparent to a man skilled in the art when considering the following summary of the invention and the more detailed description of the preferred embodiments illustrated herein.